DEGREES OF RECRUITING

The 5-foot-11, 245-pound fullback from Bristol Central is on the verge of making a college choice. He's narrowed it to Syracuse, UConn or Wisconsin and all have offered him a scholarship.

Already having visited the first two unofficially, Evans will go to Wisconsin for an official visit the weekend of Sept. 7-8.

"I want to commit early so I won't have to deal with the stress," said Evans, a Courant All-Stater on the defensive line last season. "Tim [Washington] did the same thing last year."

Here's what Evans is up against:

Go to Syracuse and team with former Bristol Central star and good friend Washington.

Head off for the opportunity to play in the Big Ten, in Madison, Wis., which will afford him a serious change of pace and atmosphere, not to mention being many miles from home.

Become one of the key in-state recruits to help UConn build and prosper in Division I-A and become one of the poster boys other in-state recruits can point to in the future as having made a difference.

UConn is heavily recruiting three state players -- Evans, Richard Kittrell, a 6-7, 303-pound defensive lineman from Hyde School in New Haven and Matt Lawrence, a 6-2, 190 running back from Bloomfield.

But Evans has some tough choices.

"I called Tim the other day and he really helped take some of the pressure off," Evans said. "He told me that he doesn't like being away from home. He said that Wisconsin is far and how was I going to just get a ticket to get on an airplane if I had to, or bus fare? He said it's hard being away from his family."

And Washington hasn't even been gone a year.

Evans would like to play with Washington again and that might ease the family thing for both.

But Evans isn't listing UConn just to be nice. The first thing he talked about was UConn's business school.

"My first priority is my education," said Evans, who has yet to attain a qualifying score on the SAT. "UConn's business school is ranked in the top five nationally and that's important to me."

It's a no-brainer as far as being close to home, but Evans wrestles with going to an established program vs. one that is up and coming.

"Being able to set the tone for local players to go to UConn, helping players go there and making it more widely known is attractive," Evans said. "I don't know; it's just hard. I've got a difficult decision to make."

Evans is taking in everything Washington and first-year Bristol Central coach Doug Pina are telling him. Pina played at Syracuse in 1983-86 while UConn coach Randy Edsall was an assistant.

Pina and Washington aren't alone in offering Evans support. He is also listening to his mother Denise, and grandmother Annie Grace Pearson, neither is pushing him in one direction or the other and they have broken it down into three parts for him.

"The first thing they said is, 'OK, if you went away would you be comfortable with it? They talked about the education part of it and they asked me would I be comfortable with the role I was in on the team? The first thing that came to mind for me was education because no one in my family, except my uncle, has gone on to college and got a degree and that's important to me."

Evans can get a degree from any of the three schools. He can get the top-notch business degree he wants from UConn. After that, the schools are on equal footing.